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| Image Courtesy www.screenrant.com |
In Daredevil
episode 8, “Shadows in the Glass,” it is time for Wilson Fisk to step into the
limelight. For the first time in the
entire series, we are getting an episode that is almost entirely dedicated to
our primary villain. What are his
motivations? What turned him into the
man he is now? How does he like his
eggs? All of these questions—and
more—are answered in “Shadows in the Glass”!
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| Image Courtesy www.screenrant.com |
The episode shows us
Fisk’s morning routine three times.
Twice it is virtually the same; the third time shows how the events of
the season have been affecting him. His
morning routine begins in the early hours of the morning with him waking up
suddenly—perhaps from a dream—and staring at his painting, “Rabbit in a
Snowstorm.” He prepares an omelet for
breakfast—always the same. He eats
breakfast alone. He chooses his outfit
for the day from a row of virtually-identical suits and several different
shirts. From his collection of cufflinks
he picks out the same two every day. And
when he looks in the mirror before leaving, he sees himself as a scared child
covered in blood. All through this
sequence Fisk does not say a word; all we hear is classical music playing in
the background. It is fascinating what
this says about him. He is very precise
in everything that he does. He is
extremely organized. And yet, his
organization and routine hide a deep, dark psychological trauma he suffered as
a child.
Meanwhile, we switch
from a very organized room to one in complete disarray—the aftereffects of
Matt’s bout with Stick in the previous episode, “Stick” (1x07). Matt seems to be suffering from his own
depression because of the physical and emotional beating he took. As mentioned previously, Matt learned that
Stick actually cared for him, but he drove Stick away. By comparison to the mess that Matt appears
as, Fisk almost seems to have his life together. Of course, the rest of the episode
demonstrates just how twisted up Fisk is.
I like how they contrast the hero and villain with this opening
sequence, showing the similarities between their journeys. This helps to set up the rest of the episode,
as well as their conflict at the end of the season.
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| Image Courtesy www.screenrant.com |
Once Matt arrives at
the office, he walks in on Foggy and Karen discussing their investigation into
Wilson Fisk’s operation—and specifically whether or not to bring him in on
it. Eventually they decide to tell him,
and even tell him that they have been working with Ben Urich on it. Though Matt is initially fearful for their
safety—especially after finding out about the attempt on Karen’s life outside
Mrs. Cardenas’ apartment building in the previous episode—he decides to join
them when he realizes they are not going to leave it alone. However, Matt insists that they need to do it
the “right” way: using the legal
system. A superhero who wants to defeat
his arch nemesis through the justice system???
Since when does that ever happen??? Well, Matt Murdock—lawyer by day, superhero
by night—wants to do things legally. How
cool is that? Very cool, and fresh. Unfortunately, we should all be able to guess
that it’s not going to work out quite that way for him…
However, Matt is only
a secondary plot in this episode; the majority of it focuses on Fisk. Fisk meets with Nobu, who is understandably
upset that the Black Sky boy is dead—apparently they are extremely rare, so
this loss has set his organization back considerably. However, Fisk rebuts him by pointing out that
the failure was not on his part, but rather on Nobu’s for not disclosing the
value of his cargo. Naturally, Nobu does
not take this well and storms off. Fisk
notes that Nobu “needs to be taught some manners”—the first hint that Nobu is
going to be the next target of Fisk’s “consolidation” efforts. When Wesley questions Nobu’s role in the
organization, all Fisk can say is “necessary evil.” Obviously, he is the most expendable member
of their group.
The flashbacks
throughout the episode to Fisk’s childhood are an interesting parallel to the
flashbacks throughout the season fleshing out Matt’s origin. We find out that Fisk had a rough
childhood: poverty, dad’s debts, dad’s
abuse. His father ran for city council for no other reason than to receive
bribes, and lost. He took out a loan
from Rigoletto—a loan shark—and when he lost the election, he had no way to pay
him back. Other kids bullied little Wilson,
until his dad forced him to beat one boy up and kick him while he was on the
ground. And then his dad told him to sit
in the corner and stare at the wall until he decided what kind of man he was
going to be while he beat up Wilson’s mother.
After listening to his mother’s screams and sobs for a while, Wilson
couldn’t take it anymore, grabbed a hammer, and bashed his dad’s head in. Mom helped him to cover up the murder—removing
those same cufflinks that Fisk wears all the time from his father’s shirt in
the process—and then sent him out of the city to keep him safe. This was an incredible amount of background
for them to give to the villain. After
seeing everything that Fisk endured as a child, it is a little more
understandable that he has become what he is now.
The flashbacks
punctuate the rest of Fisk’s story. He
learns that Detective Blake woke up after having been shot in “Condemned”
(1x06). He meets with Hoffman and bribes
him into finishing off Blake. However,
Matt appears at the hospital room and has a moment to speak to Blake just
before he dies. Meanwhile, Fisk has to
appease Owlsley by taking him to Melvin Potter, the “suit-maker” who makes all
of Fisk’s armored suits, to have a protective suit made for Owlsley. Owlsley takes it out on Fisk when Wesley
informs the two of them that the “man in the mask” was at the hospital with
Blake before he died. At this point
things are not going Fisk’s way, and it goes even worse the next morning when
Madame Gao comes over for a visit. She
calls him out for knowing Chinese (even as she knows English) and reprimands
him for getting sloppy enough for her to learn where he lives. Ultimately, she explains that she came to
visit as a courtesy: If he doesn’t get
his house in order, she will cut him out.
As soon as she is out of the room, Fisk flips his table and stares out
the floor-to-ceiling windows for the rest of the day.
I find it fascinating
that Fisk has so much respect for Madame Gao when he looks down so much on
everyone else. I suspect that he views
her as a mother-figure. He did horrible things
to protect his mother, and consequently he seeks approval from the women in his
life—his mother, Madame Gao, and Vanessa.
Learning Fisk’s psychological motivations—helped along by Vincent
D’Onofrio’s performance—makes Wilson Fisk one of the most well-developed
villains in the MCU.
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| Image Courtesy www.screenrant.com |
Before concluding
Fisk’s story, we need to talk about the other sub-plot with Matt, Foggy, and
Karen. The three of them are hard at
work investigating their case. While
researching, Karen discovers that Blake is awake—compelling Matt to visit the
hospital in the mask to see what Blake knows.
That next night, Matt—in the mask—brings all of his information to Ben
Urich. Though he is initially fearful of
“The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen,” Ben knows that there are two sides to the story
and agrees to listen to Matt’s version.
Matt gives Ben all of his information—“Wilson Fisk” and “Leland
Owlsley”—and urges him to publish it to expose Fisk and his machinations. Sadly, Matt is totally naïve: he thinks that as soon as people know who
Fisk is, they will turn on him; in reality, this is a chess game, and right now
it’s too close to call. At this point
Matt seems to have the advantage, but Fisk takes it back almost immediately.
The same evening that
Matt meets Ben, Wesley brings Vanessa to Fisk’s penthouse. We learn that all of the flashbacks are
simultaneously Fisk’s musings on the past and his story to Vanessa of what he
did and why he is the way he is. Vanessa
accepts everything that he says, comforts him that he is not a monster, and
spends the night with him. The next
morning Fisk goes through his morning routine again, but with noticeable
changes. Instead of staring at the wall,
he snuggles with Vanessa. He makes two
omelets, and she eats breakfast with him.
She picks out a different suit, different shirt, and—significantly—a
different set of cufflinks for him to wear.
Instead of staring at himself in the mirror as a blood-spattered child,
he stares at Vanessa, who interposes herself between him and the mirror. And then he calls a press conference in which
he comes out of the shadows to pledge that he will rebuild Hell’s Kitchen. Matt and his friends all watch the press
conference, and are all visibly upset to see it. Ben deletes the partially-completed draft of
his article exposing Fisk. Matt pushes
his computer off the table.
It is clear that in
the narrative, this episode ends right around the moment when Fisk looks most
likely to triumph, and Matt looks closest to defeat. If it were to end right now, you would think
that Fisk really has triumphed. However,
there are five episodes left, and the story is far from over. I really enjoyed seeing just how Fisk became
the man he now is, and how much Vanessa cares for him. It is fascinating to think that even the
villain has people he cares about, and people who care about him. Really, Fisk’s character arc this season is
as much about Vanessa and her impact on Fisk as it is about Matt’s impact on
him.
I haven’t seen a
single episode of Daredevil that I did not enjoy thoroughly, and this
episode did not disappoint, either. I
love how much time Daredevil gives to its villains—proportionately more
than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. even does, and in season 2 AoS
devoted several full episodes to the villains.
I look forward to seeing Marvel take the same care in fleshing out the
villains in their other Netflix series.
What did you think of
this episode? Who is your favorite
Marvel villain? What villain do you
think needs or needed more time to flesh out his or her character?
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